Language Skill for Delivery Couriers
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Deutsche Post introduces Blended Learning Language Training - A Combination of Digital & Face-to-Face Formats with Communication from Private & Professional Everyday Life
Category: LANGUAGE TRAINING
Project partners: Deutsche Post AG & Lingua TV GmbH
The logistics industry experienced unprecedented sales growth during the corona pandemic. Due to the health protection, for example, online retail boomed, and with it Deutsche Post AG's mail and parcel division. New hires in the delivery area were the order of the day. To improve team communication there and the integration of migrants in general, Deutsche Post launched a language training program in a blended learning format.
"Post & Paket Deutschland" is the largest postal company in Europe with around 200,000 employees in Germany and is a division of Deutsche Post DHL Group based in Bonn. Every working day, these employees deliver around 49 million letters and around 5.9 million packages in Germany. According to the company, the diversity of employees at Post & Paket Germany, with more than 190 nationalities, is very important because it creates a wide range of skills and perspectives. Mutual understanding is crucial and common language a key to success. For Post & Parcel delivery couriers, German language skills are particularly important in communicating with customers and in the team. And it is precisely the development of these skills that is the focus in this project "Language training for delivery courier".
Learning needs
The language training is aimed at delivery couriers from the Post & Paket Deutschland Division. The aim is to improve their German language skills for both private and professional life. In the company, this is intended to create a better basis for communication among colleagues, as well as better communication skills vis-à-vis customers. At the same time, it is intended to make location and time-independent learning via digital mediation possible within the postal group. Deutsche Post sees the project as an integrative approach to people with a migration background due to the general expansion of language skills and attaches social significance to its own project.
Course of the project
In order to support employees with minor German language skills and to make them fit for private as well as professional everyday life, Post & Paket Deutschland developed an eLearning concept together with the company LinguaTV for the playful teaching of German language skills via app and classroom training or coaching via telephone & e-mail.
The goal of the project was to offer effective German language training for employees in the parcel and group delivery sector with very different working hours and locations, which could be rolled out across around 40 branches nationwide. This challenge was solved by 3 building blocks in sub-projects. Starting in the 3rd quarter of 2020, the two project partners initially developed general learning content and vocabulary from everyday working life, including piloting via 6-week classroom training with more than 40 delivery couriers in 5 locations. In the first and second quarters of 2021, self-learning via the app was then tested with the help of individual support from experienced coaches in 7 branches with around 110 delivery couriers. In the 4th quarter of 2021, the rollout of self-directed learning with the LinguaTV app took place with an initial 520 licenses.
"The offer of a language app is exactly the right way to give the newly hired, often foreign-language parcel delivery couriers, the opportunity to quickly acquire the necessary German vocabulary from everyday work. "
Chris Wurth, Head of Delivery Parcel Germany, Deutsche Post AG
All modules train general as well as job-related German skills. The content from everyday working life has been made particularly practical and motivating through close joint development with delivery couriers. The close cooperation between individual branches, the Recruiting Post & Paket team and the delivery departments at group headquarters, as well as LinguaTV, were essential success factors for the practical content.
METHODS
Project result
The result of the cooperation between Deutsche Post and LinguaTV is impressive. In the face-to-face training sessions, instructor-led lessons were organized with qualified language trainers on site. Based on the learning objectives and a needs analysis, the participants agreed on a learning plan. In the classroom, the trainers focused on the language skills still needed, especially productive skills such as speaking, pronounciation and writing. The trainers integrated authentic documents from the learners' everyday working lifes - for example, notification cards in connection with the delivery of packages - as teaching material in the lessons.
Self-directed learning via app is offered nationwide by Deutsche Post as a comprehensive range of German courses (at levels A1-C1 CEFR) and language content from everyday working life in the terminal-independent app from LinguaTV. The delivery courier receives personal access and can thus access the desired learning content regardless of time, location and terminal device. Employees can also choose between different user languages that display the instructions to them, which simplifies the learning process.
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Delivery couriers learn interactive via app
The learners can use their smartphones to expand their language skills and at the same time acquire important operational knowledge that will help them cope confidently with everyday working life. Among other things, they will find videos, reflective situational role plays and a conversation trainer.
In addition, users of the app can initially expect a welcome video from the management of Post & Paket. This is intended to make their motivation and connection to the group clear from the start and is an expression of appreciation toward them. Afterwords learners can take a digital placement test to assess their existing language skills. On this basis, learners can then select the appropriate general LinguaTV self-learning course themselves. Subsequently, learners can expect 3 app elements: General LinguaTV self-learning courses (selectable based on the placement test), Vocabulary- and a Conversation Trainer with content related to everyday professional life.
The general LinguaTV self-learning courses rely on a successful combination of scenic videos, grammar tutorials, interactive exercises, learning games and vocabulary trainers: Practical and authentic conversational situations are shown in short video sequences. This enables a realistic representation of everyday professional and private life, as well as the acquisition of practice-relevant language skills in context and through active participation. Optional subtitles not only help to better understand what is being said, but also promote listening and reading comprehension. Interactive exercises and learning games offer the opportunity to actively train and test the new language skills. The varied, gamified learning content guarantees quick learning success and high learning motivation.
Targeted learning success
The Deutsche Post app has been very clearly conceived and designed by the service provider LinguaTV, so that learners can find their way around easily and, based on their language assessment test, can take further steps and set their language and career goals.
The sustainability of learning successes is ensured by a multi-level learning and testing system, detailed reporting and transparency of learning progress for learners and teachers. Ultimately, learning successes are rewarded with a certificate, which is only issued with a passed final test (at least 70%).
Voluntary anonymized feedback from participants as part of the training evaluation via the app showed a high level of acceptance among the Deutsche Post workforce: 96% of course participants who took part in the online survey stated that they were "very satisfied" with the training offered. On average, around 70% of active course participants regularly used LinguaTV several times a week. On average, self-learners studied for more than 20 minutes per day.
Conclusion
Deutsche Post AG recently initiated the introduction of language training for delivery courier with the service provider LinguaTV GmbH during the corona pandemic. Learning is practical, job- and company-related, and sometimes gamified in a blended learning format. In the app-based part, the videos and interactions are particularly convincing in terms of their concept. The jury of the eLearning Journal gained a positive impression of the overall implementation of the project and therefore awards the eLearning AWARD 2022 in the category "Language Training". The integrative and social approach, which the postal group thus programmatically takes up, is really appreciated. Moreover, the high level of learner acceptance seems to suggest that it is coming to full fruition.
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?INFO
Specifications: Delivery couriers at Deutsche Post are to be trained in their German language skills. The company hopes that this will lead to a better communication basis in the workforce and a more confident communicative appearance towards the clientele.
Special features: Overall, the digital language training addresses everyone of the approximately 200,000 employees working for Post & Paket Deutschland who would like to voluntarily improve their German language skills. The company expects around 1,000 learners and migrants to take up the training offer each year.